Dear friends,
I have been thinking about the seasons, having just returned from Vermont, where the winter weather was surprisingly reasonable. My springling is making a study of the transitional micro-seasons — mud season, stick season, etc. — that differentiate Vermont’s long wintry season.
Governing — and organizing — also has seasons, like budget season. In anticipation of the release of the governor’s budget proposal tomorrow, NY Renews has organized a call relay to ask her for a bigger investment in climate action.
Sign up for Friday’s call relay to share your budget priorities with state leaders. This takes just a few minutes — script and #s provided!
I have deep affection for the ‘public comment period’. It rolls around whenever government entities are considering new rules, and it is a democratic feature of the too-much-reviled administrative state.
This would allow religious organizations to refuse to provide contraception, while allowing patients to
obtain their birth control from a participating provider, who would be reimbursed by an insurer on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The insurer, in turn, would receive a credit on the user fee it pays the government.
Once the public comment period opens, we will weigh in!
January, which marks the beginning of most legislative calendars, has some built-in optimism, as lawmakers introduce — and reintroduce — legislation to address the many challenges we face.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, one of the co-sponsors of the EACH Act, highlighted the racism and classism implicit in the Hyde Amendment:
“For over 40 years, Hyde has forced poor women who are denied insurance coverage for abortions to carry pregnancies to term or pay for care when they’re already struggling to make ends meet. With extreme abortion laws in place in half the country, it is more critical than ever that we fight to make abortion accessible wherever possible. It is past time for our policies to ensure everyone can get the health care they need without shame, punishment, or financial ruin.”
Let your Congressional representative know that you’re expecting their support for the EACH Act.
The Pebble proposal was rejected because there was no acceptable plan for disposing of the mine waste. Since the open-pit mine was to be 1,500 feet deep and a square mile in area, there would have been tens of millions of tons of rock to remove. Twenty years of resistance helped to squash this plan; the triumph is huge.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland signed the Minnesota mining moratorium
after scientific review, as well as discussions with local and tribal groups, which concluded mining posed a potential for irreparable harm to the pristine Rainy River watershed, hunting and fishing rights held by the Chippewa tribes, and ecology that has created a $540 million annual outdoor tourism industry in the area.
All of these decisions were driven, in part, by the people who submitted public comments.
We know that the stakes are high for the front-line environmental activists who take on corporate interests and the police who protect them. Tortuguita, the activist killed in Atlanta, was not the only person targeted by the police.
Contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which provides jail support, bail money, and access to representation for protesters.
Apparently, police violence knows no season. You are surely aware of the heinous beating of Tyre Nichols, who died of his injuries.
Sign the petition to Memphis’s city council calling for structural change to policing. This quick action is from Moms Rising. Add a comment!
This is also State-of-the-City/State/Union season. Our leaders are pressed to report what they’ve done and lay out their agenda for the coming year. The president will speak on February 7. Here are some heartening pieces of news from the speeches:
In New York State, there is talk of indexing the minimum wage to inflation. The legislation isn’t written yet, and this is an important initiative. More soon.
In New York City, curbside composting is coming to the whole city. It’s not going to be mandatory, and for some of us, it’s not going to be soon, but it’s finally coming. The expansion will be phased in — Queens first, in March, Brooklyn in October, Bronx and Staten Island in March 2024, and Manhattan in October 2024. Our rolling public comment period has not been for naught.
I haven’t wanted to give too much oxygen to George Santos AND I am pleased to say that the struggle for hearts and minds is winning: overwhelmingly, the voters in his district do not believe he can represent them effectively and those who supported him wish they had not.
Today, Santos announced that he will not serve on committees until the investigations into his finances are resolved. My own prediction is that his troubles are only going to snowball, and that he will be forced to resign by springtime. Which makes today’s news. . . a sign of spring!
with love,
L